Cook Medical had humble beginnings in the spare bedroom of the home of Bill and Gayle Cook in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. It was 1963 and Bill Cook, a biologist, began building wire guides, needles and catheters for use in medical procedures while his wife took care of the book-keeping and distribution.

The Cook story might have continued in this low-key way if it wasn’t for Bill Cook’s pioneering spirit and his encounter with the man considered the father of angioplasty, Dr Charles Dotter, in Chicago in 1963.

That meeting marked the beginning of a life-changing partnership with Cook making wires and catheters to Dotter’s specifications. On January 16, 1964, Dr Dotter performed the first transluminal angioplasty using a Cook device. In doing so, he revolutionized cardiovascular and vascular intervention surgery.

As Cook Medical expanded in the years that followed, its name continued to be associated with world-first medical procedures, cementing its reputation as a trusted and innovative manufacturer of medical devices.
Dr Michael Harrison used a specially designed Cook Medical “pigtail” catheter when he performed the first successful surgery on a fetus on April 26, 1981, and a specially produced Cook catheter was used to record the blood pressure of two astronauts onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia during a life-sciences mission in 1991.
Today, Cook Medical delivers quality medical devices to the top medical research facilities, teaching hospitals and leading specialists in countries around the world. The legacy of Bill Cook lives on in his original mission and pioneering spirit as Cook Medical seeks new ways to improve patients’ lives while remaining a true family company that values people above profit.